Prudential Dunn Realtors, an independently owned and operated broker, has been serving beach and inland communities for 40 years. President and CEO Patrick Park, who’s operated the firm for 36 years at 4538 Cass St., said there’s no secret to his success.

“We’ve been fortunate to have had some very good agents and associates through time who sincerely have their clients’ best interests in mind — and that’s what it’s all about,” Park said, noting a property purchase is “the largest asset in people’s lives in most cases.”

Prudential Dunn specializes in residential, investment and commercial properties, including lots and land. With about 50 agents countywide, the firm's listing base varies from waterfront properties to vacant land, including some of San Diego's larger estates.

The firm is a member of Prudential Relocation Services (PRS), one of the largest international relocation networks, and it can draw on the expertise of in-house Prudential Financial, a division of Wells Fargo Advisors & Liberty Mutual Insurance representatives.

Park said his real-estate firm has changed with the times, which he noted have changed dramatically.

“The industry as a whole is a lot more time-sensitive than it used to be,” he said, pointing out that’s partly because “People in the millennium generation, and other generations, want answers very quickly. You need to get it (information) to them on mobile apps or whatever.”

Like many other industries, he said, the Internet has revolutionized how real-estate companies do business.

“Being online has become so critical because you really don’t know where your buyer is coming from,” Park said, noting that the market has become increasingly more international, drawing prospective buyers from around the globe for San Diego properties.

Citing one recent example, Park said a fixer-upper in La Jolla that sold for well above the property’s estimated value range drew offers from China, Canada and Mexico before being sold to a Texas real-estate broker.

Park hailed value-range pricing as a key to the continuing success of county real-estate sales.

“Prudential brought value-range pricing to this country from Australia in a market that was not doing well,” Park said, adding that listing property in a range rather than as a flat rate allows “wider exposure with respect to those listings.

“If you have a condo listed at a fixed price of $501,000, anybody looking up to $500,000 is not going to see your condo,” he said. “But if it’s value-ranged at $475,000 to $525,000, you’re going to pick up somebody looking in that range. It’s a very good feature of the San Diego city and county markets and throughout Southern California.”

Real-estate prices are rebounding nicely from the downturn of a few years ago, Park noted.

“What we’ve seen in the past year or two are that prices are recovering,” he said. “As an example, our average sale price last year was in the mid-$400,000s. This year, the average has been more than $550,000, though not for the same properties.”

Park speculated San Diego’s notorious nice weather —and bad weather elsewhere — may have something to do with escalating San Diego real-estate values.

“It shows that San Diego is still America’s finest city in every way, shape or form,” he said.